February 15, 1900] 



NATURE 



375 



The engineer utilises matter wherever it can be found ; he 

 Jelves into the crust of the earth for ores and minerals which 

 give him wealth, currency, protection and strength ; he dives 

 into the sea to survey the bottom as a bed for his cables, and to 

 see that he has secured proper foundations for his moles, piers 

 and breakwaters ; he explores the surface of the earth for articles 

 of necessity, of use and of luxury. He irrigates the land, to 

 prepare it for the growth of pure and wholesome food, for the 

 supply of cheering and sustaining drinks, for the maintenance 

 of the stores on the shelves of the doctor, and for those articles 

 of pure clothing that add so much to the comfort, cleanliness and 

 health of man. He utilises for his purpose the great principle 



in the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river 

 navigation and docks, for internal intercourse and exchange, and 

 in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, breakwaters and 

 lighthouses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power for 

 the purposes of commerce, and in the construction and adapta- 

 tion of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns," 



It is difficult to classify the sections of engineers into any 

 logical order ; but I have attempted in the following table to 

 arrange methodically the various branches upon the same 

 principle as we draw up a genealogical tree, for every branch 

 emanates by direct descent from the one root, engineering, 

 which is applied science. 



ENGINEERING. 



Civil. Military. 



Naval. 

 I 



Artillery. 



Gun Mountings. 



Explosives, 



Ship- 

 building. 



Marine 

 Engineering. 



Hydro- 

 graphy. 



I 



Application of Steam 



Hydraulics and 



Electricity to the 



auxiliary machinery 



of Ships. 



I 



Torpedoes. 



Submarine 



Mining. 



I I I I I I III 



Fortifica- Artillery Surveying Submarine Signalling Barracks Traction. Search- Balloon- 



tion. and and Recon- Mining. and Construe- Road \ lights. ing. 



Explosives, naissance. Telegraphy. tion. Rail- -making. 



way. J 



Domestic. Municipal. Inter- Urban. 



Bells and Signals. Electrical Energy. Bicycles. 

 Buildings (Archi- Gas. " Canals, 



tecture.) Housing the Working Motors. 



Drainage. Classes. Railways. 



Lifts. Hydraulic Power. River Navigation. 



Lighting. Hygiene. Roads. 



Ventilation. Markets. Telegraphs. 



Warming. Overcrowding. Telephones. 



Water-supply. Parks and Recreation Surveying. 



Grounds. 



Public Buildings. 



Public Lighting. 



Refuse-destruction. 



Sewage and Drain- 

 age. 



Slaughter-houses. 



Smoke-prevention. 



Streets. 



Tramways. 



National. 



Breakwaters. 



Ceramics. 



Chemical Industries 



Coinage. 



Construction of 

 Machinery and 

 Engines. 



Docks. 



Harbours. 



Irrigation and 

 Agriculture. 



Lighthouses. 



Management of 

 Estates. 



Manufacturing Pro- 

 cesses. 



Metallurgy. 



Mining and Quarrying. 



Refrigeration. 



Signal Stations. 



Trigonometrical Survey 



Inlernational. 



Connection of 

 National Surveys, 



Lighthouses. 



Posts ( Letter 

 Carriage). 



Steam Navigation. 



Submarine Tele- 

 graphy. 



I 

 Cos m teal (or 

 Universal). 

 Astronomical Men- 

 suration. 

 Geodesy. 

 Hydrography. 

 Manufactures, 



of energy, so as to transform it at his will into its various forms 

 of heat, light, electricity, sound, chemism and material motion. 

 By these agencies he transforms crude matter into its various 

 elements, compounds and states, so as to secure permanence, 

 strength and value. 



Life is not free from his grasp. He has developed the 

 Empire of Bacteria, and has encouraged the minute microbe in 

 countless armies — to liquefy and purify our sewage, and to be- 

 come the scavenger of our homes and our cities. He has by 

 <lefensive measures freed the soil and the river from those ruth- 

 less bacterial enemies who invade our frames and bring disease 

 and death in their train. 



Engineering is divided into various sections, many of them 

 having their own institutions and their own publications. 



The defitiition of a civil engineer, as given in the charter of 

 the institution, is very comprehensive. This institution is " a 

 society for the general advancement of mechanical science, and 

 more particularly for promoting the acquisition of that species of 

 knowledge which constitutes the profession of a civil engineer, 

 being the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for 

 the use and convenience of man, as the means of production and 

 of traffic in states both for external and internal trade, as applied 



NO. I 58 I, VOL. 61] 



The growth of invention in early ages was very slow. Man 

 sheltered himself in caves. How long did it take him to devise 

 a tent, or a hut, or a house ? How long to protect himself with 

 clothing? How long to construct weapons of offence and de- 

 fence, not only to protect himself from wild beasts and from his 

 neighbours, but to secure for himself food and raiment ? The 

 first protection from weather was probably the skins of the 

 animals he hunted, killed and ate, and the first art acquired — 

 the making of leather. How long did it take him to obtain a 

 knowledge of the use of fire, and of the means of producing it 

 artificially, so as to cook his food and to bake the plastic clay 

 into pots and pans for drinking and eating purposes ? 



We have no record of these early stages of the evolution of 

 the human being. The first known picture depicts him as a 

 hunter. Ages elapsed before the conception of a record 

 "engraved upon the rock forever" seems to have occurred to 

 him, and though stone, papyrus, clay, skin and wax gave him 

 material upon which he could record in elementary pictures his 

 victories, his virtues, and his commands, many centuries passed 

 before the greatest invention the world has ever acquired— the 

 alphabet— occurred to some smart Phoenician, probably in the 

 land of Egypt, where picture-writing, hieroglyphy, had reached 



